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MARRIED LIFE GOING LONG, LONGER, KEEP GOING

Married life seems long when you think how long you’ve been married. Then someone else says they’ve been married longer and calls you newly weds. Newly weds after thirty-seven years? That’s it? I keep it more basic: Every day has a first date feel. You remember first dates?

‘BACK HOME’ IS THE SADDEST PLACE

“Back home we don’t call it that.” Those are the words I overheard at Tapphoria. Two people at another table were going over things. They weren’t from here and the more they talked the more each mentioned their own ‘back home.’ I know homesick when I hear it.

DRAWING LINES TO LIVE BY?

Who is drawing lines to live by? Picasso did. Unfortunately, you’re no Picasso, I’m no Picasso, so why bother? We bother with lines and borders for a sense of control like, “Don’t go there, girlfriend.” The big Question Of The Day: Who draws borders when they’re on the same side of the line you’re on?

HOLDING GRUDGES TAKES A SPECIAL KIND OF STRENGTH

Holding grudges is a time honored tradition between races, religions, nations, and families. “We don’t like them.” “Why don’t we like them?” “Why would we?” This exchange gets played out between young and old, men and women, brothers and sisters. Eventually holding grudges turns into something completely different than how it started because no one […]

HEROIN HISTORY TODAY

A person of heroin interest. Recent events around the Old Blog Coach’s yard brings back memories of the New York neighborhood. Heroin may not be on your radar, but it is stealthy. You don’t know until it’s too late, according to some heroin addicts parents. Still, no need to blame yourselves if your kid spikes […]

MANHATTAN STATES OF MIND ACROSS AMERICA

    Does anyone see a Manhattan sunrise and feel the power of the Big Apple, the urge to go out and take a big bite? Or a Manhattan sunset at the end of another satisfying day sorting chicken and chicken sh!t.   Manhattan promised you could make it anywhere if you could make it […]

THE KING OF NEW YORK CITY, 1975

Stoner nation rolled in the muddy Woodstock slip and slide in upstate New York. Five years later they took a shower, got a haircut, and danced the disco. Top New York City discos needed the right people managing the door and lines that grew down the sidewalk most weekends. Full of Queens, Brooklyn, and Jersey […]

LEARNING TO LEARN PORTLAND BIG AND SMALL

  Life long learners need classes to learn Portland?   A New York man moved to Portland in his fifties. He returns to The City every year to find something new. “Just walk around the financial district in lower Manhattan and you can read the history of the area on the sidewalk,” he said. “I […]

ON WRITING WELL, pt. 1

One idea is to write a lot, just not about writing well. As a youth I enjoyed reading about writers and their lives. Their work? Not so much. Writers’ biographies were more interesting than anything they wrote at the time. With the idea that living like a writer would make a better writer, those biographies […]

NEW YORK CITY IN THE 70’s

When The Going Gets Freaky In New York City In The 70’s, Fly That Freak Flag If You’ve Got One. I found comparison pictures of before/after Detroit, with today looking worse for wear. At the same time New York City photographers started showing their city in the seventies. It’s called everything from gritty, to terrifying, […]